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Sinn Féin Health Spokesperson Deputy Louise O’Reilly has said that Taoiseach Varadkar is simply wrong on Sinn Féin’s budget health figures and his comments in the Dáil this morning were an attempt to deflect from his Government’s derisory health budget.

Teachta O’Reilly said:

“It is clear that Taoiseach Varadkar was trying to deflect from his Government’s derisory health budget in the Dáil this morning but he is simply wrong.

“If this is the type of advice his €5 million a year spin doctors are giving him then it bodes poorly for the calibre of debate we will have with this Taoiseach in the Dáil.

“The Government claims that it has outspent what Sinn Féin committed on current Health Service expenditure – this is not the case as anyone who analyses the figures will see.

“Sinn Fein’s Alternative Budget starts with the net fiscal space – this is calculated by the Department of Finance after providing for demographic pressures, public pay increases, carryover effects and other pre-committed expenditures.

“Therefore all the allocations contained in our Alternative Budget are additional to these provisions.

“Sinn Féin allocated €403 million of additional Current expenditure and €100 million of additional Capital expenditure to health.

“As you can see from page 104 of the Government’s Budget 2018 Expenditure Report, the Government’s additionality above those pressures is €269 million for Current expenditure and €20 million for Capital.

“So when we compare like with like we see that the Government‘s total additional is €269m plus €20m which equals €289m whereas Sinn Féin’s is €403m plus €100m which equals €503m.”